Frontiers of financialisation in social finance and low-income housing in Brazil

Tatiane Boisa Garcia and Mariana Cristina Adão

Chapter 13 in Handbook on Financialisation and Space, 2026, pp 212-234 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: New financial instruments and arrangements addressing social and environmental issues have emerged in recent years, driven by financial market actors and legitimised through narratives of impact. This chapter examines the way financial markets have expanded the financialisation frontier through the rise of social finance. Taking Brazil as an illustrative case, it explores how those actors extract revenue from low-income groups, particularly through housing. The analysis contributes to the understanding of how social finance, shaped by global impact discourses, has been treated as a laboratory for financial experimentation. The Brazilian case illustrates a variegated and asymmetrical process of financialisation mediated by national dynamics, institutions, and local power relations. By analysing two cases, namely, housing improvements through microcredit and affordable rental housing, the chapter shows the way financial instruments and hybrid arrangements (such as blended finance) advance financial frontiers, blur boundaries between philanthropy and investment, and position low-income populations as clients, extending the commodification of housing into spaces historically shaped by public policy, informality, and collective struggle.

Keywords: Impact Investment; Environmental; Social and Governance; Philanthropy; Social Impact Bonds; Social Housing; Homeless (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035328628
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